Thread by @SandmanGrant

#gafcon #gafaus22 Conference Day 2 Live Tweet Thread. A privilege to start with my friends and hosts in Canberra and start the day with a run with @rscchin, then reading 1 Chronicles 16 and also praying the daily entry in @AnglicanAidSyd prayer diary. This verse struck me…

Now to Philippians 2 with Bp Jay Behan of the church of Confessing Anglicans in New Zealand. Notes the deep desires of people to “walk together”, including the desire of those seeking to revise doctrine. Jay agrees: unity is deeply and rightly prized in Philippians 2; John 17.

Do we have the one *mind* of Christ? “… stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel”; “…make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.” - Phil 1:27, 2:2!

Jay’s outline of ch. 2.
Vv 1-5 - first appeal: unity in humility to one another.
Vv 5-11 - example of Christ’s humility.
Vv 12-16 - second appeal: unity in humility before God.
Vv 16-30 - 3 human examples of humility.

What a contrast to our world - where identity and individualism is key… self-definition, self-esteem, self-determination, self-assertion… almost any ‘self’ except the Bible’s virtue of self-control! Christians ought to live for others, above all for Christ.

And God never asks of us something that he does not enable for us: giving the encouragement of being united with Christ, comfort from his love, common sharing in the Spirit (v1)… God works in us what he wills for us (v13)!

Jay shares how asked for a one word description of family members, he used ‘servant’ for one… to a groan from the audience, maybe assuming it’s demeaning. But for him it was the highest compliment, for it reflected the example of Christ’s humility, vv6-8.

How can we look down on others when we reflect that it was my sin that took Christ to the cross? This is our Saviour.

And the exaltation of Jesus by his resurrection means Jesus is also Lord (vv9-11). And one day every knee will bow to him, willing or unwilling. So bow to him now, while you can do it willingly.

Then 3 lesser but just-so-gritty human examples:
- Paul, who sends his co-workers like Timothy and Epaphroditus, his comfort in chains, for the sake of others who need them more;
- Timothy, who looks to the interests of others;
- Epaphroditus who serves even though very sick.

Humility, serving, caring for unity, contending as one mind for Christ - not grumbling, not ambition - will help, as we each work out how to serve, whether in the Anglican Church of Australia, or in the new Diocese of the Southern Cross.

As my dear friend and colleague, Pete Smith from Perth prayed: work in us that miracle of forming the likeness of Christ, the true man, so that we are not afraid of the way of cross, the way of service.

And singing…
To this I hold, my Shepherd will defend me
Through the deepest valley He will lead
Oh the night has been won, and I shall overcome
Yet not I, but through Christ in me…

Here is @dominicsteele on @pastors_heart interviewing Peter Palmer, the first minister of the first church in the new expression of Anglicanism in the Diocese of the Southern Cross… #gafaus22 thepastorsheart.net/podcast/southe…

@threadreaderapp please unroll.

Now to hear from Ashley Null, one of the world’s premier scholars of Thomas Cranmer, under God the principal architect of Anglican Christianity. Here’s a good introduction to Cranmer… christianitytoday.com/history/people…

Does God ‘get behind’ what we’re already doing? Or do we long to let God lead us in all things and principally salvation? This is a modern expression of key Reformation question for today.

Null proposes three talks on unity, diversity and charity.

This Kansas boy says he’s never seen a cart pushing the horse… And most approaches to Christian unity make it our work rather than God’s gift! #CartBeforeHorse

John 17 makes clear that Christian unity is a gift. Hence Jesus intercedes with his Father to ask God to give it! “I pray …that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you...” John 17:20-21

Christian unity comes from individuals being invited into the triune life of God through his Son, as his gift.

How does God unite us to himself and others? Through giving us the gift of faith to believe in him and his Son… “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word…” John 17:6

“For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.”
John 17:8.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message…”
John 17:20

The word precedes the institution!

This was the great debate in Henry VIII’s church once the tie to Rome was cut. The traditionalists argued for the institution and its traditions unfolded in the church. The evangelicals responded that our whole faith is unfolded in the Scriptures alone.

They added that the church’s interpretation of Scripture should only be established by what other Scriptures were saying.

Cranmer’s notebooks: Is not the church a creature? Is not the gospel the voice of God? So the Scriptures should not be made subject to the church!

And, Cranmer said, insofar as the church had a subsidiary role in recognising or confirming the authority of Scripture, it was found in the ancient church, not in the church contemporary to his time!

Ashley Null address interlude #gafaus22: “It is hard to read your text and reach for Diet Coke at the same time!”

The Holy Spirit will not reveal new truths essential to salvation additional to those found in the New Testament focused on the work of Christ alone.

The church could not and should not attempt to add to the teaching of Christ and his apostles found in Scripture.

Null, in modern legal terminology: “Cranmer was a strict constructionist”.

…Or as the boy from Kansas says: Scripture is the horse 🐎 and the church is the cart 🛒!

So Article XIX
Of the Church
The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same…

…As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch have erred: so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith.

Article XX
The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and authority in Controversies of Faith: And yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another…

Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of holy Writ, yet, as it ought not to decree any thing against the same, so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation.

So back to John 17…

(Image courtesy of verseoftheday.com/en/11182018/)

Included in the prayer of response:
“Break the Dagon of pride in pieces before the ark of thy presence; Demolish the Babel of self-opinion, and scatter it to the wind; Level to the ground my Jericho walls of a rebel heart; Then grace, grace, will be my experience and cry…

Source - The Valley of Vision: a Minister’s Strength…

banneroftruth.org/us/devotional/…

After lunch seminar: The Myth of the Via Media and other Canterbury Tales, from @earngey “I’m not sure that ‘fudge’ is the best expression of Anglican identity!”

Rev Dr Mark @earngey, Head of Church History, @MooreCollege, wants to put a bomb under the 3-legged Anglican stool of Scripture, tradition and reason, all in balance!

Claims that Anglicanism is a ‘via media’ ( = ‘middle way’) between Rome and Protestants by focussing a common core rather than focussing on (alleged) extremes is a historical novelty (really from 1840s) from the Tractarian or Oxford movement (Pusey, Keble, Newman).

It led to musical, architectural, liturgical and theological change. But justifying this change required fancy footwork.

It requires trying to make Cranmer’s best work sound like it was sealed off from the continental Reformation. So BCP 1552 is described as the extreme point of Calvinist or Zwinglian influence, whereas 1549 was non-papalist Catholicism (the ‘via media’)!

But the Lord’s Supper in 1549 BCP is Reformed and not even Lutheran, let alone Catholic!

Dr @earngey is quoting Cranmer’s premier biography, Diarmid MacCulloch

Then here’s the claim about the Elizabethan settlement being a ‘via media’ including in what Dr Earngey said was Dr Porter’s modestly titled work!

Certainly, Queen Elizabeth I, was not as Reformed as some, but she was excommunicated by Rome, she appointed a succession of clearly reformed evangelical archbishops, published the 39 Articles, and was praised by Calvin, even if ‘more Zurich than Geneva’!

Richard Hooker’s Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, was re-published by John Keble in 19th C., claiming him as interpreting NT by natural reason and church history. And now later, e.g., Archbishop Aspinall, claims now Scripture, tradition and reason are equal sources of authority

But undisputed academic consensus is that Richard Hooker is committed to the supreme authority of Scripture. E.g., here’s his own words…